Our Home Letter.

Otago Witness, Issue 1419, 1 February 1879, Page 16

Our Home Letter.

THE MONTH'S NEWS.

Los don, December sth._ The Marquis of Lome and Princess Louise have accomplished their journey, and loyal Canada is brimful of enthusiasm. The scene at Liverpool 'on their departure was very Btriking, and the Mayor and Mayoress and other worthy citizens were exalted into the seventh heaven by shaking hands with three Royal personages and a Marquis in the space of one brief ecstatic minute, while Liverpudlians generally threw cotton and offices to the winds, and flocked in enormous crowds to the great landing - stage to see the embarkation. Princess Louise, Princeß Arthur and Leopold, and Lord Lome stood with unflinching courage the infliction of a loyal and dutiful address twice over in the Town Hall ; and the Governor- General and hiswfe were then driventhroughthecityinan open carriage and pair, in which, by-the-bye, his Excellency had to sit with his back to the horses, the Duke of Connaught appropriating the seat next his sister. Acclamations, bouquets, and cheers welcomed them. In mid-strtam Jay the Sarmatian, with steam up, and ready by the landing-stage lay the Alian tender, got up for the occasion, with all kinds of dscorations. Tide waits for no man, so without further delay the distinguished party embarked, and clambered up the steamer's sides ; and having given the Princess time to open a farewell telegram from the Prince of Wales, and receive a last kiss without the nonsense of etiquette from her brothers, the Sarmatian slipped her oable and steamed down river, tugs and craft of all kinds decked with gayest bunting following in her wake and cheering lustily as the Royal handkerchief waved a laßt adieu. Certainly her Royal Highness should have liked ber cabin. It was furnished with every luxury, with hot and cold baths, a patent anti-eea-sickness berth, and a library. Suspended from the roof were everywhere bunches of rarest flowers and fragrant exotics ; at one end canaries fluttered among tho rare pUnta of an aviary. But mal-de-mer is a terrible leveller, and no respecter of persons. Hardly WBS the Sarxnatian outside the mouth of the Mersey than a gale sprang up, and before night the unhappy Princess w»s in unspeakable agony, and utterly indifferent to tbe Eastern pro fusion of magnificence in her cabin ; and I suppose it would not be far wrong to say that her Royal Highness would have most gladly exchanged the whole bower and its splendour for only one square foot of the barrenest terra firma in her august mother's dominions. The patent berths were an utter failure, and tho inventor has, I believe, since committed suicide j and the Marquis aud his wife had to take to common bunks like ordinary moitals. All through the voyage the wind blew, and the rain came, and the Btorm descended upon the unhappy Sarmatian, the waters breaking over her more than once. No music beguiled the weary time, for the ducal piper was utterly upset, and the skirling of the bagpipes startled not the Bad sea waves. At length Halifax was reached, and escorted by the whole available fleet of the station, headed by the Duke of Edinburgh, in the Black Prince, the Sarmatian dropped her anchors in Canadian wateis after a voyage of ten days, and the Princess landed under cover of dirkneßs and passed the night at the Government House. The telegrams say she looked terribly ill, and had Buffered feat fully. Halifax was crowded with visitors, and the kilt was triumphant. Representatives of the American Press flooded the hotels, and the Nova Scotian port on the day of the official landing counted within its boundaries more members of the Fourth E*ta,te almost th%n legitimate citizens. -The ceremony came off with every success, aud the Duke's barge took the Governor- General and his wite to the pier am d the thunder of royal salutes and the tremendous cheering of the crowd. Thence they drove to the Provincial Hall, where the oaths of office wt re administered, and the inevitable address duly present )d, to which the Marquis made an excellent reply, which has already produced great satisfaction. The Princess was almost smothered with bouquets showered upon her from balconies, from windows, from the tops of triumphal arches, and every coign of vantage, as sne drove through the streets, which were most gaily, and in some cases f astastically, as in an at eh made of fire brigade material, decorated. After dinner, at the Lieutenant-Governor's house, a grand draw-irjg-room was heW, at which all the beauty and grace of Canada wure present to greet their Princess in wondrous nostume and considerable doubt as to Court etiquette. Next morning a palace car carried the viceregal party towards Montreal, stopping I frequently to acknowledge the loyalty of the Canadians, both French and English, who waylaid the train at unfxpected stations, and on the second day landed them safely at Bonaventure railway station, together with a whole car-full of loyal addresses received en route. There were salutes, guards of honour, mayors, and addresses again, and the Princess' carriage ■nag dragged to the Windsor Hotel by an enthusiastic crowd, who would not suffer the horees to be put to, and who could only be reatrained from too exuberant loyalty by the escort of Montreal horse, described as "a splendid Volunteer cavalry, in hussar jacket aud dragoon helmet." A grand ball followed, in which Scotch reels were conspicuous, and even here the übiquitous " address "made its unwelcome appearance, to the utter dismay of his Excellency. A day or two afterwards the vice-regal party went on to Ottawa, and have now taken up their t residence at the seat of government. The Duke of Connaught, after seeing his Bister off, has sped away to Berlin to his betrothed, there to spend three happy weeks before his marriage early next year. From all accounts his princess is likely to be as popular as the Princess of Wales amongst us ; and as for the Prince, he is nothing if not a favourite of the nation, and the darling of the army, in which he is no drawingroom soldier, but does his work thoroughly, like the genuine officer he is. A great move is making to present him with a national testimonial on the occasion of his marriage ; and in Irelaud, where his title gives him an additional claim to t/he loyalty ot the people, pverypeeron fche rpU JjPS joined tho com-

mittee for obtaining subscriptions. Apropos of royal marriages, the betrothal of the Duke of Cumberland to Prin cess Thjra was formally announced at the Court of Copenhagen the other day, with much ceremony and eating and drinking, to the interne chagrin of the German Court, whose envoy tied up the ambassadorial knocker, and left tbe embassy without even saying good- bye. And this because the Duke fairly declines to give up his claim to be King of Hanover, despite the Kaiser and Bismarck. Ar d the Danes are sect etly pleased at the evident^ annoyance they have caused at Berlin : it is an infinitesimal revenge for 1564 anJ Dlippel. These royal events have once more set on foot the rumour that Napoleon IV. is to marry our Princess Beatrice — when he js Napoleon IV. I wonder whose fertile brain hatches these absurd canards.

" Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," must recur forcibly to the sovereigns of Europe in these days. The International has again been active, and this time its precious assassin has attempted the life of the King of Italy. The King aud Queen, with Signor Cairoli, tbe Prime Minister, were entering Naples in a carriage, when a misguided miscreant leapt on to the step and struck at the King with a dagger. Queen Margherita caught up in her arms the little Prince of Naples, and cried out, "Cairoli, save the King!" The Premier needed no such appeal ; he had already interposed bis person, _ and received the dagger in his thigh. At the same time his Majesty coolly drew his sabre, and, disdaining to use the bright steel on such a villain, fidministered a most sounding thwack with the hilt to the head of Passanante, the would-be assassin, which knocked him over, and before he could recover himself, he was cut down by the captain of Cuirassiers of the escort, aud half torn in pieces by the infuriated crowd, altogether having a remarkably bad time of it. The King was slightly touched with the dagger, but Cairoli's wound was far more serious. It still keeps him to his bed, but perhaps he does not so much regret that. Ho is now the most popular man in Italy, and the Collar of she Annunziata, and personal visits from the King at>d Queen, are not bad salves for a flesb-wound. The attempted assassination has of course thrown all the Peninsula into wild exhibitions of loyalty, and the return of their Majesties to Rome was greeted with unbounded enthusiasm, the crowd repeatedly callingfor a sigbt of them on the balcony of the Quirinal. But all Italy was not so devoted to Monarchy, and at Florence a thanksgiving meeting was rudely dispersed by the explosion of a bomb, which killed nearly a dozen people, and the same Socialist argument was adopted at Pisa. Many arrests have followed of suspected persons, and not a few papers have been found, setting forth a pretty little Internationalist programme for the consecutive murder of every crowned head in Europe, on the grounds, aa Par&anante stated on his examination, that "they object to kings." Even his Holiness has been startled by the wide spread ramifications of this dangerous society, and the act of Parsanante has not only induced him to send his own personal congratulations to King Humbert, but actually to propose a veritable union of Church and State so far as to take concerted action against the spread of perni. cious Socialist doctrines. Indeed, it may be said, without any exaggeration, that the desperate efforts to murder the Emperor of Germany, and the Kings of Spain and Italy, have created in every State of Europe thejmost profound feeling of apprehension, and an indefinable dread, which it is the very object of the Internationalists to produce. Happily we have not much fear that the dangerous leaven of Socialism will ever spread through the loyal feelings of Englishmen, though that the International has agents in this country is well known. Queen Victoria was the first to congratulate King Humbert, and express her deep horror at the dastardly attempt.

In Berlin they are making no sham of the new Socialist Bill lately passed by the Chamber. A police decree has been issued, that all dangerous persons may be excluded for a year to come from the city, its suburbs, and certain other districts, and expressly forbidding the carrying of arms or possession of any explosive projectile, except by special authorisation. That the police meau to enforce their order is evident, for more than a hundred suspected Berliners have been ordered to clear out within four days at the utmost, and the list includes two deputies of the Reichsvath. Prince Bismarck intends to have no nonsense with Socialism, and other countries will have to adopt his Btern policy, if that hydra-headed monster is to be stamped out. As for the Chancellor himself, his life is in danger every moment, but he takes every precaution, and may foil the many assassins who are continually dogging Ms footsteps for many years, and perhaps even die in his bed after all.

Talking of the Iron Prince, much amusement and considerable scandal has been caused by the publication in Berlin of the Table-Talk of Bismarck, by Herr Buscb, once his Highness' secretary. It chiefly embraces the period of the late war, when it was apparently the custom of tho Prince to allude to the French as "obedient Caffres." We also learn that the Chancellor drinks like a fisb, and "is the more sober the more he takes ;" evidently also he is a very ancient Pistol for boasting and braggadocio ; he considers, not unnaturally, a German worth any two Englishmen, Italians, Austrians, Russians, or "obedient Caffres:" he has forgotten all his Greek, but still speaks Latin fluently, teste the now famous dictum heati X>ossidentes. Aud so on for many pages does Herr Busch, not altogether like another Boswell, present to us the inner view of the great Chancellor, in his home, over his winecups, and in the study. The translation of the work into every European language is already in hand, so eager are we to know all the little history of the great ones of the earth.

A character has just passed away who might have written a much more interesting secret history than Herr Busch has just given to tho world. Df Quin was one of the best-known men in London, and his bon mots and anecdotes welcome at every dinner-table, from the Palace downwards, for he was one of the old and now ontinct raoo of Wits of Kocie-ly, :mil belonged to ttio BcTiing eoliool as Theodora Hook and Dou^ka

Jerrold and Sydney Smith. Early in life he knew well the Earl of Beaconsfield (who in later years gcod-humouredly took him off in "Lothair," in which delightful book you will remember the genial Pinto), as he knew every man and woman of any eminence. He was an intimate friend of the widow of the Pretender ; tbe favourite of Pauline, the great Napoleon's bast-loved sister ; the boon companion of Talleyrand, and the rival of Count d'Orsay. When the great Emperor lay dying at St. Helena, it was Dr Quin for whom he sent to attend him ; but the mighty heart had burst before Quin could start from England. He knew the hisbory of every intrigue, every liaisen, every cabal, every scandal of the century, and in most of them his consummate knowledge of the world led him to be consulted. But he never made capital out of the catalogue of causes celebres he carried in his head, and has gone down to the grave, carrying his memoirs with him— unless, indeed, like Charles Greville, he has left behind him a strange volume of social notes for the scandalmongers o£ posterity. His death leaves a gap in London society not easily to be filled in these degenerate days of true wit.

A ludicrous and bloodless battle has been fought ia France, arising out of the heat of debate. The question of the invalidation of M. de Fourton's election was under discussion in the Chamber, and M. de Fourton, who was Minister of the Interior in the De Brogli Ministry, was defending himself against the accusations of M. Gambetta in the Tribune. Something he said caused the ex-Dictator to spring from his seat with the unparliamentary exclamation, "It's a lie." Called to order, M. Gambetta refused altogether to retract, although doing so formally, selon le riglement. M. de Fourton challenged, and seconds were busy. The meeting was arranged. So far all was serious ; but now follows the ludicrous part of the incident. M. Gambetta is terribly short-sighted, M. de Fourton has only one eye. The morning was densely foggy. The distance was 35 paces. The combatants could not by any possibility see each other. They fired one round ; nobody hurt on our side nor the enemy's. General shaking of hands, and triumphant return of the desperate duellists to Versailles. No doubt all was done in the best of faith, but the two deadly foes who fired at each other through a denße fog at a distance beyond the range of the pistols have come in for a large share of laughter, satire, and sarcaem. One French paper exclaims to its readers : — "Fancy Lord Beaconsfield and Mr Gladstone, after a debate in Parliament, turning out to fire ball cartridge at each other in Hyde Park on a November morning." Fancy, indeed ! The names of the bloodthirsty antagonists have lent themselves to an infinity of jokes. Figaro says : — " Any sort of bettor, ■ even a Gambetta, would lay Fourton one against a hit at 35 paces." So much for the chief champion of La Republique Francaise. On the other side Count de Chambord issued a manifesto that France will never be la belle France again until the nation welcomes back God to their hearts, and Henri Cinq as their King. Unfortunately, Prince Louis Napoleon is of precisely similar opinion, King being changed into Emperor. And so between Frohsdorff and Chiselhurst the Republic Eeems to have a certain chance of stability as a middle course.

We have at last contracted and signed an extradition treaty with Spain, and a great wrong has been put right. . Spain was the only European country with which we had not such an engagement, and consequently offered a ready haven of refuge to all scoundrels and defaulters who could safely leave our shores before the police were on their track. Unfortunately the treaty cannot be made retrospective, or A lexander Collie might find the land of oranges too hot for him. Another precious alien the Spaniards have to thank wi for is James Nicol Fleming, ex-diiector of the City of Glasgow Bank, who got safely there after the great smash. He says he will cotne over and answer at the trial for himself ; but he adds, with a certain touch of dry Scotch humour, "In tho meantime I decidedly prefer the sunny land of Spain to Duke street Gaol, Glasgow." The treaty provides for extradition in cisc of all the crimes usually included in such conventions with other nations.

The American Government have, after all, paid the Halifax Fishery Award, and a cheque for a million and a-half dollars was handed to the English Government two days before the stipulated date. "Under protest" was marked on the enclosing sheet, rather marring the handsomeness of the final submission to the arbitrators' decree. But the Canadian Government have now the hard cash, and do not care for hard words. Very likely, too, Secretary Evarts meant nothing by his endorsement, and only wrote the words to satisfy the imperative exigencies of party existence in the great Republic. A great amount of State paper has been wasted by Mr Evarts and Lord Salisbury over a matter about which no question should ever have been raised by the Americans : nor, when we compare the absolute silence in which the Geneva Award— a far greater amount — was paid by us, with the noisy complaints of Washington, does the late controversy redound much to the credit of President Hayes and his Ministers. But, as the papers point out, this is another instance of the victory of arbitration and moral suasion over mere appeal to force of arms, and as such, an advance towards universal peace among nations, and the settlement of all disputes without the horrors of war. A great scheme, which has been long under incubation, at last stands a fair chance of becoming an established success. This is the proposal to inaugurate accommodatiou for a class of "paying patients," primarily at the great metropolitan hospitals, and eventually throughout the country. At a General Court of the Governors of St. Thomas' Hospital, held on the 20th of November, tbe proposed scheme was fully discussed. Ex-Lord Mayor Stone presided, and in. an able address set forth tho main heads He said "he bslieved the Charity Comnaiaoionera would warmly sanction tho idea. It was a melancholy faob that, although St. Thomas' liad been built to accommodate GOO in-paticnta, it could not tal;o in 7UOTO than 350 from want of iuri«Wi, aud out of 21 wardy only 13 were oym.

These 13 were, however, completely fitted up, and oould be used for paying patients, and they were comprised in an isolated block of buildings, having on the west the Thames, on the east the park gardens of Lambeth Palace, and had a separate entrance. It was proposed that these very suitable wards should be thrown open to patients who should pay two, three, and four guineas a week for the accommodation. It was b9lieved hundreds of the lower middle classes, especially those in lodgings, would only too gladly avail themselves of such a refuge when seriously ill, and at the same time the Hospital would obtain a large increase of income." No doubt this is a very good and beneficent conception. There are so many people who cannot afford to pay for the conBtaut medical attendance of first-rate men, or for skilled nurses, or who are suffering from diseases difficult to diagonose at first sight, who would be only too delighted to exchange the discomfort and misery of slipshod nursing at their lodgings for the perfect and systematic regime and care of a hospital. Thousands of such in London only will hail the new proposal most gratefully, and the medical profession will not grud^ c the action of the hospitals. The Court of Governors unanimously approved tbe resolution, and we may exDeot soon to see the scheme in full working order. It is sure to be a great success.

The serious depression of trado still continues with unexampled severity, affecting all classes. In Kent and Sussex the agricultural labourers are on strike, and many of them have been locked out. Their grievances were taken up by Mr Auberon Herbert and other 3, and a great meeting at Exeter Hall abused the employers roundly. The agitation promised at one time to prove serious, but seems now subsiding, although much misery exists among the men. Certainly, when 16s a week is considered fairly good pay, there is little wonder at murmurings arising. I wonder what agricultural labourers in New Zealand would do for that ! Then in Lancashire there has broken out a now cotton strike, chiefly in the busy town of Oldham, which spins half the imports of Manchester, and crowds of ill- fed Lancashire roughs fill the streets, and may do mischief when the shoe begins to pinch. In the Sheffield district families are fairly dying of utter starvation, the cruel winter quietly snuffing out the unfortunates ; for the breadwinners, mostly Bkilled artisans, can get no work among the silent furnaces. Throughout the country the cry is that there is no work to be got. General is the stagnation j and through it all the labouring classes suffer and starve impatiently. Why they do not emigrate passes my comprehension. With free passages, fourfold wages, a new country, and a thousand other advantages for the making up of their minds, they cling on to their wretched homes and live the most miserable of lives. With energetic agents, now should be the time to get the very first class ol assisted emigrants ; a revival will come some day, and then there will be twice the difficulty in procuring really suitable men and women. The Speaker of the House of Commons, in a recent speech, attributes the depression of trade entirely to the " bloated armaments " maintained throughout the Continent of Europe.

The death is announced of Mrs Taib, wife of, the Archbishop of Canterbury, while on a visit to some relations in Scotland.

There is joy among the Inna— l don't mean of the brewers, but of the Court— and the feea are rolling in grandly, and the great counsel are aa busy aa bees ; for during a couple of Bhorfc weeks the stomachs of those who are ever agape for gossip and scandal have been satiated with a Christmas abundance of catises celehres. To begin with, the whole world of art from Primrose Hill to Holland Park has been violently agitated by the trial of an action brought by that eccentric innovator, Mr Whistler, against John Ruskin for libellous criticism of his odd and extravagant theories of painting ; and in every studio coteries have gathered together, and work being thrown aside, have over countless replensions of the inspiring meerschaum vehemently discussed the subject according to their, respective schools, some upholding Whisker as the coming man, others adopting Mr Ruskin's definition of him in the libsl complained of, which runs as follows :—": — " For Mr Whistler's own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay ought not to have admitted works iato the [Grosvenor] gallery, in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture. I have seen and heard much of Cockney impudence before now, but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of painfc in the public's face." Ihus John Ruskin, greatest of art critics, scathingly, in "Fors Clavigera," righteously indignant at the newfangled conception and fanciful nomenclatures of "symphonies," "arrangements," " nocturnes," and so on, launched upon the eyes of a startled public by the ingenious Whistler. But artists, even the innovator, are but men ; therefore Mr Whistler lays action for damages, and the cause is tried before Baron Huddleston, and such an audience fr^m the studios, ateliers, and galleries aa surely was never before gathered together in a court of law. Sir John Holker defended John Ruskiu, and Serjeant Parry Mr Whistler, and both of them kuew about as much about art as the jury, and that was nothing at all. However, R.A.s and A.R.A.'s cirne to the rescue of the perplexed lawyers, and swore black was white and white was black ; or, in other words, that Mr Whistler was a great and gifted artist, and a great and gifted idiot, with singular partiality; and the case speedily got involved in a mass of artistic technicalities, which the studios alone can unravel. There were, however, some tit-bits in the evidence which were intelligible to the uninitiated, when Mr Whistler himself stood in the wit-ness-box, and in conscious pride explained to a puzzled world the hidden meanings of "nocturnes" and "arrangements," "symphonies" and "harmonies," in black and white, blue and gold, amber and green, and Mr Whistler himself only knows what other incongruous juxtaposition of striking colours. No word 3 could give any idea of these strange works of art, which must be seen to be grasped : accordingly exit his lordship tho jiuigp, the counsel, the jury, and the amused awlu-tiut) gcne.ially to a privnto uml jn-atui-tQW9 view ©f Mi' Whiwtlcr'j} chjvf effvrta W

the adjoining Westminster Palace Hotel, whence they returned too much impressed and confused to go on with the case that day. I have never seen Mr Whistlers pictures myself, but I have seen a capital burleEque on them at the Gaiety Theatre. The inimitable Edward Terry was an artist for that occasioa only, and had painted for his ladylove, Miss Nelly Farren, a canvas " after Whistler." It was "an arrangement in blue and red," and, said Mr Terry, "you may stand it ' upside down or downside up.' In the one case you behold the wide blue ocean and the tropical sky refulgent with all the glories of the sunset : in the other, you behold the lurid glare of the sandy desert, and the vivid blue of the cloudless sky beyond." And I believe it was very much, indeed after Whistler. One of his pictures represents fireworks at Cremorne, and is nothing but black darkness streaked with lines of gamboge. This is a " oymphony" in black and yellow. Another, The Thames by Moonlight, is a sheet of blue {what a compliment to Father Thames !) with a streak o silver down the middle. This is a "harmony " in blue and silver, and the painter acknowledged that he " knocked them off in two days apiece. " And you think that worth 200 guineas?" asked the Attorney. General. "Certainly I do." Much more technical discussion and evidence followed,"! and eventually the jury brought in a verdict 1 for tbe aggrieved' plaintiff, damages one farthing, each party to pay their own costs — a not very decisive verdict one way or the other. Academicians, associates, art societies, and all the painting world of eminence are raising a subscription to pay Mr Ruskin's costs, but I know of no similar movement en Mr Whistler's behalf. But it should be said for him that he is the victim of a large amount of ungenerous feeling, it may be envy, on the part of his brother artists, who are determined to snuff him out if possible. Yet one can hardly call a man a painstaking, conscientious painter who "knocks off" a picture in two days, and expects 200 guineas for the performance.

The theatrical world, has baa a sensation of its own. On the occasion of tha rehearsal of a certain play — " Madeline Morel "—at the Queen's Theatre, the lovely Mrs Rousby, immortalised by the invention of the graceful hat that bears her name, was superintending in her capacity as manageress, and, with truly feminine audacity, had altered and amended part of the situations. All was going on smoothly, when Mr Baudmann, actor, and author of the piece, rushed on to the stage in artistic fury, and insisted upon his work being rendered with faithful adherence to the original. The Rousby, having bought tbe right of performance, claimed boldly her own discretion. Mr Band mann, loudly denying this, made an ungraceful rush to secure tho proof-sheets ; Mra Rousby interposed her finely-rounded arm to prevent him, and— and here is the rub— Mr Bandmann was alleged uogallantly to have struck it down, and inflicted apainfulbruise. The popular actreßS summoned him for assault, and the case was fully argued before the Lord Chief Justice, who, gallant old beau that he is, selected it for his own particular enjoyment. And the " odium dramaticum " came out with a vengeance, to the delight of the highly stagey audience who came to listen. Mrs Rousby was accused of deception, of wilful imposition— that the injuries had really been caused by a fall on the stage ; she was drunk, she was never sober, Bhe lied, and so on. Mr Bandmann came in for similar abuse. He was violent, ungentlemanly, a coward. Then evidence for the respective defences painted the actress and actor in golden lights, and all the time the Lord Chief Justice on the Bench listened with a cynical smile. In his summing up, he said all that oould be said for the fair plaintiff, as a polite jadge should ; but it was plain from the evidence that Mr Bandmann was never guilty of tha cowardly conduct of intentionally striking a lady, and so the Jury thought, acquitting him of the charge. Whereupon Mrs Bandmann, sitting by her husband, went into hysterics on her husband's shoulder, and Mr Bandmann, stretching out the " sledgehammer " right arm that had done such mischief to the fair Rousby, exclaimed in melodramatic tones, "Thank you, thank you, my Lord." And so it ail ended in proper stage fashion, and the curtain fell ou a " striking " scene which is the talk of every green-room in London.

But a more important case than these outbreaks of artistic and theatrical rancour has just been decided, and with a re&ult which will affect society all the world over.

Mr Asjar-Ellis, a gentleman of birlh and means, well known in London society, and intime of Sandringham and Marlborough House, married, some years ago, a lady of the Catholic faith, with whom he has hap. pily lived until to-day, although himself a Protestant. Before they were wedded, and perhaps in the enthusiasm of young love, Mr Agar-Ellis solemnly promised his bride that if they were blessed with offspring, theMj children should be brought up in their mother's religion, and in all the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. When sons and daughters had been born to him, however, Mr Agar-Ellis repented his ante nuptial promise, and, before Vice- Chancellor Malms, had the case tried, whether it were binding upon him, and the Court held him untrammelled. Mrs Ellis appealed, and judgment was given last week by Lords Justices James, Baggally, and Thesiger, confirming the decision of the Court below, in an elaborate argument, affirming that it was a principle and authority settled so as to bo beyond question that the ante-nuptial promise is in point of law absolutely void. As between the husband and wife, the question is to be determined as if there had never any such promise, and therefore it is the husband's undoubted legal right to remove his children from the influence of a mother who is avowedly using that influence to thwart his wishes as to their religious education. " And yet," continued the learned Judge, " basiDg our decision upon the main point—the power and jurisdiction of the father — we think the infants ought not to be bound to attend the public worship of the Church of England as by law established, so as to throw on tho father the whole responsibility of doing now, and dating the remaining years of his children's respective minorities, what is right and proper. Ho o«»ht to discard all thoughts [ of persoa-1 dignity," porponal supremacy, or;

triumph in a personal struggle. Tha law trusts to him that he will, rising above all Buch petty things, have a sole regard to what he conscientiously brlieves to be for the temporal and spiritual welfare of his children. And we, pronouncing what we deem the law, must leave the matter to his sense of parental duty and his conscience." This, as you will ace, is a mest important judgment, and one that will extend far beyond the diff. rences of Mr and Mrs Agar-Ellis. How many hundreds of mixed marriages have been made in England, and I doubt: not in the Colonies, on the faith of some (such ante-nuptial stipulation as, by the decree of the highest Court of the Law, has been declared "absolutely void." How many domestic differences will now take place, where the wife has been of another faith than her husband. And the judgment applies only as against the wife, for ic^ is entirely based on the theory, as Lord Justice James said, that the husband iB "lord and king in his own household," although their Lordships, at the conclusion of their eloquent judgment which I have quoted, ap» peal to his fairness and sense of equity. Perhaps a decision fraught with, in these hot days of religious contention, so much dangerous meaning, his never before been stamped with the seal of the Court of Appeal, and the consequences may, and probably will be, most serious. Already the case has attracted an unusual share of public opinion, which properly admits the strict law, but questions the equity. It is •well so grave a decision should be widely known, as it places mixed marriages on an entirely different footing than well-meaning people have generally taken them to be. It js so common for an agreement to be made before marriage as to the faith in which the children aregto be brought up, and I suppose thatagreemenbhas in all cases been held indisputable and sacred. Protestants and Catholics alike must know now that anything of tbe gort is, in law, " absolutely void and null."

Of a very different sort is another dispute between a husband and wife of the Upper Ten, one which has ended badly for the wife. A more extraordinary deception never was attempted, nor pone about with such utter clumsiness. The facts are britfly that Lady Goocb, wife of Sir Francis Gooch, Bart., the fortunate owner of the fine estate of Benacre Park, Suffolk, and £25,000 a year with it, was blesed with only one child, which died young. Determined to prevent bo magnificent a property from passing to more distant heira, her Ladyship took desperate pains to get up the theory of an accouchement, procured a male child from some Infants' Home, went up to London, and a day or two afterwards announced that she was the happy mother of a fine boy. But her Ladyship went about this dark game without the elightest precaution — indeed, openly. She avowed her most reprehensible intention to several people, and endeavoured to petsuade more than one doctor to aid her in the imposture —to the credit of the faculty, without success ; she told her companion, a Miss Garrod, her whole plan, and generally behaved with the most astonishing absence of secrecy where secrecy, deep and desperate, could alone have succeeded. Sir Francis Gooch, after the pretended accouchement had taken place, had no resource but to publicly expose the fraud, or see his ancestral estate pass into the hands of a foundling, and accordingly London was gratified with an unusually appetising scandal in the dull season, and Marlborough street Police Court filled with an unusually respsctable audience. The evidence, which was of great length, detailed the most extraordinary proceedings on Lady Gooch's part, and the most persistent intention to palm off a fictitious child on her husband, which ehe followed steadily even though Sir Francis warned her of the consequences ; going about London systematically searching for likely babies, engaging rooms at the Grosvenor Hotel, and making every preparation for the mysteries of confinement, being throughout accompanied by Miss Garrod, who finally, seeing her protests useless, turned evidence against her. There was not a peg, save that of insanity, to hang a defence on, and Lady Gooch is not insane, thongh of all the absurd deceptions ever attetnptedshehaspractised the absurdest. When all was made clear, Sir Francis, his object attained, wished to withdraw the prosecu tion ; but the magistrate deemed the case too serious, and stated his intention of sending it for trial. When he said that, Lady Gooch, who had pluckily kept up, with tbe aid of a chair and a thick veiJ, againsball the damning evidence throughout the five days of the trial, fell forward in a dead faint, and ■was carried out of Court. The case will go bsfore a judge, and the sentence the law allows for such a crime is penal servitude for life ; but it is highly improbable that any guch terrible punishment will fall upon this wrong-minded but most foolish lady.

_ Yet one more case of the Courts. Mr JF^aboucbere, editor of Truth, and familiarly mown in the journalistic world as " Labby," haviag written some too, too Truthful words about Mr Wybrow Robertson, charging him with having been considerably dishonest, if not worse, the energetic manager of Westminster Aquarium accordingly haled Mr Laboucbere for bbel, aud the case was proceeding gaily, when Sergeant Ballantine, counsel for the plaintiff, suddenly fell down in a fit, and the casa broke off in general confusion. Happily the eminent lawyer has almost recovered. Journalists are at war also in other offices than that of Truth. Touchstone is a lively weekly paper connected with the drama, the editor of which is Mr Edgar Ray, whom Mr Edmund Yates, editor of the World, felt had deeply injured him by a stray paragraph. Mr Yatr s, in his wrath, walked across the street to Mr Ray's office, and, in his lucky absence, loft a message with the managpr "that if his editor told any more lies about him, Mr Yates would break his walking-stick, a formidable one, over the said editor's bick." Mr Ray, returning shortly afterwards, duly rccived tho uncomplimentary intimation, and rtferred it forthwith to Bow street, where the irascible Mr Yates was bound over to keep the pesce, and his walking-stick to himself.

Mr LeightoD, R.A., has been elected by the Academy as their president, aud having received fro-ai her Majesty the gold badge and a stroke from the State sword, is now Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R. A. The choice has given great satisfaction to both the art and oujjsido worlds, Sir Frederick beiDg not

only a great painter, but a gentleman possessing that courtesy, polish, and goodfeeling which is so necessary in the P.R..A , compelled, as he often is, to maintain the dignity and hospitality of the Academy on great occasions. The new president's last work — bis first essay in sculpture — was the lion of the Academy, and "The Athlete struggling with a Python ", obtained the outspoken praisa of every critic. Next Academy will see him again to the fore in both painting and sculpture, as he has many works in hand ; nor, on their exhibition, are the Academicians likely to regret their choice of president. George Cruikshank has found his last resting-place in St. Paul's Cathedral, and there reets, with many other great dead, beneath the silver sounds cf the new bells. They buried him long ago at; Kensal Green, but he has been judged fit for a sepulchre in the National Cathedral, in the heart of the great city he loved so well, and whose vices he so deeply lamented, and laboured with all the force of his inimitible pencil to improve.

I see in one of tho papers a pathetic announcement which, after the lapse of so many years, will have a painful intereat to the colonists. It ruus thus : — " Died, Nov. 21st, Captain George Graham Duff, R.N., third son of the late Adam Duff, E-q., Woodcote House, Oxfordshire, of wounds received during the attack on the Gate Pah, Naw Zealand, in April, 1864." Poor fellow ! to have lived 14 years suffering from the bullet fired by some rascally Maori. I wonder if any remember him who were present at that sanguinary affair.